Rest

Yesterday, I spent an hour in Denver. I used that hour to walk around, taking advantage of the fact that I wasn’t strapped in to a chair.

It was Saturday, so it was a different crowd from the usual weekday business travelers. In fact, I’d say that nearly everybody there as either leaving on vacation or trying to get home from one.

And no one looked happy. It might have been that lateness of the hour, but no one was excited or eager or even smiling. We were as grim and silent as people facing a gruesome chore. And everybody looked exhausted.

I reflected on Louis CK’s fantastic tirade and wondered: Are we that jaded about air travel? Are we that entitled?

Or are we just that tired?

On the first flight of the day I was seated next to a mother with a one-year-old baby who fussed the whole flight. He was clearly tired and just as clearly unable to settle. His exhaustion made him so miserable he couldn’t even do the one thing that would have made him feel better: sleep.

How many of our own troubles seem insurmountable, how many frustrations turn to rage, simply because we haven’t given ourselves over to rest?

I don’t have an answer. I’m about to board a red eye flight that will (at best) give me 3 hours of sleep before a full day. But ahead of me is a whole week of vacation – a chance to unplug and recharge.

I’m not sure what I look like from the outside, but on the inside, my smile is huge.